Melody
by koalabear
Summary: This takes place in a happyAU place sometime after the CedricHermione story Wishes At Christmas. Happy fic written for mellowdee


**Ficlet Title: Melody**  
**Characters:** Cedric/Hermione  
**Disclaimer:** None because they're useless   
**Notes:** This is dedicated to the very sweet **mellowdee** (yeah, that's melody). After I read her comments on After The War I felt really bad that Evil Koala and my Dark Muse keeps writing sad fic, so I came up with this ficlet just now. This takes place in a happy-AU place sometime after the Cedric/Hermione story Wishes At Christmas.

* * *

"So Granger," 

"Yes Cedric?" Hermione asked lazily. They were both sitting under a large shady tree on the grounds. They were leaning against the tree but against each other, shoulder to shoulder as much as against the tree. They'd given up studying, both were a little limp and exhausted from a DA Meeting. Cedric's hair was still smoking slightly from where he'd been the recipient of a misfired hex from Neville - who had actually been aiming at Harry. Fortunately Hermione had managed to extinguish the small blaze before too much damage had been done.

"I've never heard you sing ..." Cedric told her. He thought back for a moment. "At Christmas I sang with Sirius ..."

"Yes, Sirius' favourite carol - _God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs_," Hermione said with feeling.

"And then I sang with Ginny - that girl has a _ripping_ voice ... like an angel," Cedric said reminiscently. "I'll never forget that version of _Carol of the Broomsticks_".

"Yes it was lovely," Hermione agreed,"It would have been better if Kreacher hadn't ruined it with his howling".

"But _you_ didn't sing ..." he said, his brow furrowing with memory, in fact as he recalled it, every time there had been even a suggestion of Hermione singing, Harry and the Weasleys had come up with all number of queer excuses to avoid this taking place". "Why is that?"

"The opportunity just never came up I guess. I mean I've sung for before in front of Harry and the Weasleys," she said. "At a previous Christmas - only once though...and before I came to Hogwarts, I used to be in my school choir!" she announced proudly.

"Really?" Cedric asked, fascinated as always in Hermione's life before Hogwarts. Who was he kidding, he found everything about her fascinating.

"Yes, I studied musical theory and I even started teaching myself how to compose music," she told him. "I can harmonise and ..." She started telling him about the hours of research she had put into investigating musical theory.

"Will you sing me a song?" he asked her, giving her a gentle nudge with his shoulder and smiling down at her.

Hermione flushed with delight.

"Now?"

"Yes, now," he said.

"You _really_ want to hear me sing?" she demanded, looking disbelieving but extremely happy.

"I _really_ want to hear you sing," he said, a caressing note in his voice as he leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose.

"Oh ... what shall I sing?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Anything you like," he told her, grinning at her excitement.

"All right ... this is a famous Muggle lullaby," she told him. "Are you ready?" she asked him.

"Ready," he told her, an expectant smile of pleasure on his face.

Hermione opened her mouth and began to sing.

During the first verse Cedric's face had a very fixed, almost blank expression on it. By the third verse, he had the look of someone who had eaten something that rather disagreed with him. By the fifth verse there was a look of mild strain on his face and by the time Hermione concluded the song at the end of the sixth verse, an expression very much like mind-shattering agony was on Cedric's good-looking face.

"Um," Cedric mumbled and applauded dutifully as Hermione stared expectantly at him, looking very pleased with herself.

"Well?" she asked him.

Cedric looked around wildly as if the grass or the lake could come to his urgent assistance.

"Muggle lullabies don't have a **melody**?" he asked her hopefully with the look of a drowning man clutching at a straw.

Hermione looked crushed.

"You don't like my singing," she said in a low voice, all the excitement vanishing from her eyes.

"Would it help if I told you I heard the **melody** of your song in my heart?" he asked desperately. _Unfortunately his head had been screaming 'my ears, my ears!'_.

His grey eyes looked very apologetic.

"You hated it," she said. "Was it the song? It's a very famous lullaby ..." she told him.

"Guaranteed to give infants horrible nightmares for a lifetime," Cedric muttered under her breath.

"I _heard_ that!" Hermione said stormily.

Cedric had to smile despite himself. He tried to kiss her. "Come on Granger, you can't be good at everything".

"Don't try and butter me up," she told him in a muffled voice, sounding very miserable and he laughed despite himself.

"Hermione, I love you - it doesn't matter that you sound like a Hungarian Hornback in pain," he told her.

"I can't _believe_ you just said that!" she wailed reproachfully and Cedric was laughing now, pulling her into his lap despite her wriggling protests.

"Do you want me to lie to you? Wasn't it you who told me just today that my Jelly Legs Curse was beyond rubbish?"

"Well it is," she said, burying her face in his shoulder. He patted her back consolingly.

"Am I really that bad, Cedric?" she asked him bluntly.

"Worse," he told her frankly. "You are absolutely and totally beyond awful. I don't think I've ever heard anyone with less musical ability in my life," he told her gravely.

She looked up into his eyes and the expression she saw made her smile despite herself.

He kissed her and her toes curled as she pulled him closer, her mouth opening beneath his as she tasted of him.

When she drew back slowly, he smiled again, his arms tightened around her. "I can't lie to you, Granger".

"I'm glad," she told him, an oddly gentle expression on her wilful face.

"I love you too much to lie, even about little things ..."

"I know ..."

He held her tight and then she smiled. "How much do you love me? Enough to let me sing you to sleep every night?" she teased him wickedly.

"Yes, if that's what it takes," he said bravely. "For you, I will withstand the torture".

"You _do_ love me!" she exclaimed, very moved, and flung her arms around his neck, knocking them both sideways to the grass.

"But if you love _me_ you'll give me earplugs," he quipped and she laughed despite her outrage.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed as she bit him but laughter disappeared quickly as she proceeded to show him _exactly_ how much she loved him.

**The End**


End file.
